“The Internal Revenue Service is collecting a lot more than taxes this year — it’s also acquiring a huge volume of personal information on taxpayers’ digital activities, from eBay auctions to Facebook posts and, for the first time ever, credit card and e-payment transaction records, as it expands its search for tax cheats to places… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Commerce
EFF – How Facebook Teams Up With Data Brokers to Show You Targeted Ads
EFF: “Recently, we published a blog post that described how to opt out of seeing ads on Facebook targeted to you based on your offline activities. This post explained where these companies get their data, what information they share with Facebook, or what this means for your privacy. So get ready for the nitty-gritty details:… Continue Reading
Pew – The State of Digital Marketing in the Networked Age
The State of Digital Marketing in the Networked Age, by Lee Rainie, April 19, 2013 – at Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit “Pew Interent Director Lee Rainie [discussed] the Projects latest research into internet trends, mobile connectivity, and use of social media and what they mean for marketers. He will also look[ed] ahead at some of the… Continue Reading
FTC Survey for 2011 Shows an Estimated 25.6 Million Americans Fell Victim to Fraud
News release: “The Federal Trade Commission today released a statistical survey of fraud in the United States during 2011, which showed that an estimated 25.6 million adults 10.8 percent of the adult population were fraud victims…While fast-growing online commerce has benefited consumers with greater choice and convenience, the survey indicates that, as of… Continue Reading
Firefox getting smarter about third-party cookies
Via Firefox Aurora Notes – Firefox getting smarter about third-party cookies: “On Friday, Mozilla released a Firefox patch into its Nightly channel that changes how cookies from third party companies function. Users of this build of Firefox must directly interact with a site or company for a cookie to be installed on their machine. The… Continue Reading
EU Data Protection Policies Challenge Google Privacy Policy
PCWorld: “Six European data protection authorities will conduct formal investigations of Google’s privacy policy after the company repeatedly rejected their requests that it reverse changes it made to the policy last March. Data protection authorities in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. have resolved to conduct investigations or inspections of Google’s privacy… Continue Reading
Federal Judge Rules Against Reseller of preowned digital music
FindLaw – Adam Ramiriz: “A federal judge has declared a unique website enabling the online sale of pre-owned digital music files unlawful. “The first sale defense is limited to material items, like records, that the copyright owner put into the stream of commerce,” ruled U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan. This is bad news for ReDigi,… Continue Reading
Federal Reserve survey provides information on mobile financial services
News release: “The use of mobile phones to access a bank account, credit card, or other financial account became more prevalent in the Unites States last year, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s latest report on the use of mobile financial services. As of November 2012, 28 percent of all mobile phone users and 48… Continue Reading
The Economist: Google's Google problem
“Google is killing Google Reader…What Google has actually done is create a powerful infrastructure. The shape of that infrastructure influences everything that goes online. And it influences the allocation of mental resources of everyone who interacts with the online world. But there isn’t much to the real human world that isn’t shaped by the mental… Continue Reading
YouTube Announces Hits a Billion Monthly Users
YouTube Blog: “In the last eight years youve come to YouTube to watch, share and fall in love with videos from all over the world. Tens of thousands of partners have created channels that have found and built businesses for passionate, engaged audiences. Advertisers have taken notice: all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands… Continue Reading
Application of FinCEN's Regulations to Persons Administering, Exchanging, or Using Virtual Currencies
“The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) is issuing this interpretive guidance to clarify the applicability of the regulations implementing the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) to persons creating, obtaining, distributing, exchanging, accepting, or transmitting virtual currencies. Such persons are referred to in this guidance as “users,” “administrators,” and “exchangers,” all as defined below. A user of… Continue Reading
CDT – Big Win in Supreme Court Case on "First Sale"
CDT: “The Supreme Court issued a decision today that is a major win for everyone who relies on copyright law’s “first sale” doctrine — including the millions of Internet users who have flocked to Craigslist, eBay, and similar online tools to buy, sell, and “freecycle” all kinds of stuff. The case, Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, effectively… Continue Reading
